Hi Im a 19 yr old male suffering from hair shedding since july 2017. i was diagnosed 2 weeks ago with Subclinical Hypothyroidism (HighTSH). im currently taking 25mcg levothyroxine but the hair loss hasnt stopped yet. im wondering has naybody tried taking EPO with positive effects? how long before you noticed the decrease in hair loss.
All replies would be appreciated
Hi, welcome. I'm a 66 year old woman who was diagnosed hypothyroid in 1981 (well before you were born!). My hair has fallen out although I haven't had any bald patches. This has happened whenever I was under medicated.
It's early days for you with your low dose of levothyroxine (T4). 25mg a day of Levo (T4) is classified as a Starting Dose. You will need to increase your dose every 6 weeks, although your doctor may very well be awkward and not understand this difficult illness. In my 36 years of this illness, even Professors of Endocrinology did not understand, comprehend, or were too idle to read about Hypothyroidism. So sorry to give you bad and disappointing news. This is the reason this wonderful forum is so popular and has so many members. It has become obvious to many of us on this forum that doctors of every type, including GP's, are either too idle, too ignorant, or are receiving back handers from the Big Pharmaceutical companies.
As I said, it is definitely early days as you were only diagnosed 2 weeks ago. My handfuls of hair didn't stop coming away when I pulled my hand down the length of my hair or in a comb or brush, until I was optimally medicated. Keep posting here and reading posts and replies. Good luck
I must add, and let you know, that your TSH needs to at least 1, and preferably well below 1 to feel well, and for your body to return to optimal health. Hopefully another member will be along soon to advise you on vitamin and mineral supplements. For starters, Selenium assists the thyroid to work and to convert Levo (T4) to convert into the usable thyroid hormone T3. Your vitamins and minerals will most likely be very low as you have no doubt been suffering from hypothyroidism for some time. Most of us take at least : vitamin B12, good quality Multi B, vitamin D3, minerals: selenium, magnesium (do not take calcium), zinc.
thanks for all the help! hope i recover soon
hope you get better soon with all thats going on 
Hi marigold22 Your responses here are excellent and full of helpful info! Wondering why you said "do not take calcium"? Also, how is your hair these days? Hopefully fine now?
I said Do not take calcium supplements as the western diet is full of calcium. Magnesium is the antagonist to calcium and if (very possible) we have a lot of calcium in our diet, magnesium will diminish. Magnesium is an amazing mineral.
Yes, magnesium is magnificent If taken at the same time as calcium, does the calcium decrease the absorption of the magnesium? Personally, I'm on a strict autoimmune paleo diet so I think I need to supplement with a little calcium. I take Cytoplan's Whole Calcium which is natural-source.
Magnesium and Calcium fight against each other. Western Diets have more than adequate Calcium. Therefore I'm under the impression we do not need to take any Calcium at all.
If there is too much Calcium in our bodies, it gets 'lost' and can cause problems with our bones & teeth. You need to google Calcium. I'm not an expert as I've had to research so many different subjects lately
Hi Auria . I have had a set back unfortunately. Bit of a long story but I got under medicated again by trying something new. A lot of members here will probably know that I tried going to a homeopath instead of seeing a (vile horrible) Endo. The homeopath tried 'cloning' one of my T3 tablets; I took them as he stated and very slowly dropped my NHS T3. That was before Xmas; and my hair has been coming away in my hand. Also the tips of my fingers have lesions, my waist is thicker, got constipation. So it dawned on me that the homeopath's T3 didn't work. You will understand the reason I went to a homeopath to get T3 if you have read all the moans & mega concerns about getting T3 (liothyronine). I can only take Liothyronine (T3) as I certainly do have a problem converting T4 into T3. So, having been diagnosed with Hypothyroidism in 1981, discovered it is in fact Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (by private blood test) in January 2017, I still can't always get it right. So I have increased my dose of T3 and waiting for my hair not to come away. Luckily I have always had thick hair.
marigold22, I'm extremely sorry that the homeopathic experiment left you suffering from awful symptoms! What a nightmare! I hope that, now you're back on a good dose of T3, your health will improve hugely!
Hi Marigold
I have been taking calcium should I stop? May I ask why calcium should not be taken? My hairloss is also an issue... thanks
Nobody who eats a Western diet should supplement with Calcium. As Hidden says above :-
"Most of our foods nowadays are fortified with calcium and it's very easy to have enough calcium, but very hard to get enough Magnesium. The ratio of Magnesium to Calcium should be 2:1 and (As with Vitamin K2) if you have too much Calcium and not enough Magnesium, then you will risk calcifying all your soft tissues and arteries and too much Calcium will also cause Magnesium deficiency further and as Mag is responsible for around 700 functions in the body, it doesn't bear thinking about not having enough!
When I was so incredibly ill with under medicated hypothyroid / Hashimoto's , I didn't take any supplements as my brain was not working. I now have bad teeth and arthritis - ie teeth and bones. Please google the connection between Calcium and Magnesium.
ie do not take Calcium, you do need to take Magnesium
I am an excellent example of someone who elected to never take calcium supplements due to the fact that I tested deficient in RBC Magnesium. This is red blood cell, cellular level magnesium. My serum level was fine. I recently had a DEXA scan, which is a scan for osteoporosis. I am too young to have one, but I asked my doctor for one because I felt that I was a risk due to malabsorption problems, never taking calcium and being dairy free for several years. My scan results came back as pretty much perfect. The doctor even commented “keep taking your daily calcium!” Uh, no. If I did, I’d have even more of a magnesium problem!
Disclaimer: YMMV. Your mileage may vary. Some people actually do need to take calcium. That’s why people get osteoporosis, if they are not absorbing enough calcium. Test your RBC magnesium first!
But - it's other vitamins (+ minerals?) which get the calcium there is in the body, into the correct places. If calcium has not got the additional vits/mins to work correctly, it will get lost in the body. That may well end up as spurs on the bones etc.
ShootingStars is proof not taking calcium is the best policy. I've had 2 hip replacements in my early 60's due to not taking magnesium, vitamin K2 etc.
By the way, another No No is Omega 6. We eat enough / too much Omega 6 in our Western diets. It is only Omega 3 (Three) that we need to eat foods with and /or supplement with.
I was very surprised at my DEXA results. I don't have any bone spurs either. I really did not expect it to be so fabulous. I figured I'd have at least some signs of bone issues. No. I had my knees scanned last year and they were also surprisingly clean. The OD said they usually find something on the knees of people my age. 50.
Yes to no Omega 6. It's inflammatory. Omega 3 has anti inflammatory properties.
Plz help me in losing weight.
I have dignoses with tsh 4 months bfr with tsh 60 and after 1.5 month it was 9.13 and now it is 0.059
Iam taking thyroxine 100 mg but feeling pufft face swelling on hands and foot.and 160lb weight every rym feeling pain in ody plz sugest me way to reduce sweling on face.
Hi Paul, I've male pattern baldness since my twenties, after six months on levo I've had quite a bit a hair regrowth. If it carries on I will have to buy a comb. More expense.
That's very interesting Greybeard . My son is 37 years old, is losing his hair, and I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. I was suffering from that illness whilst pregnant with him, unknown to me. I was diagnosed (incorrectly with Hypothyroidism) when my son was 8 months old. He has all sorts of symptoms although not clearly showing hypo or Hashimoto's. I'm now convinced he has one of those two illnesses. Thanks for writing your reply; it has helped me. But, how on earth do I get him to have blood tests ? He has so far refused point blank when I suggested he could well have low thyroid.... he went bananas.
You can only lead a horse to water...............
did your hair sheddin stop?
I now look like a spikey friar tuck. Bald on top with about 100 hairs that weren't there for 40 years😁
is that a good thing or a bad thing? 😂 why dont u take finasteride?
What is Finasteride?
pauloingaran, what are your ferritin level and values for other iron levels? Low iron can contribute to hair loss, too.
ferritin is way above normal range.
Can you share the value and ranges? High iron can cause hair loss. Have you been tested for hemochromatosis? How is your high iron being treated?
ferritin 302 (4.20-207)
Hi pauloingaran, That certainly is well above range. This could very well be the cause of your hair loss. How do you feel? Sorry for all the questions! Do you have the rest of your iron panel results, too? This would be most helpful. What does your doctor say about this? I hope they have been in contact with you. How is it being treated? High iron can cause a lot of other very serious health issues. What are all of your symptoms?
just hair loss. the endo didnt really say much about it. just my elevated tsh. i read up and found out that it could be cause by an inflammation in the body. i think its because of that and my eosinophil is 0.5 range is (0.1-0.4).
Paul, a hemotologist is who you should see for super high iron. That endo should be kicked in the rear for just dismissing this potentially deadly issue like that. I hope he ran a complete blood count and comprehensive metabolic panel after he found that with your iron?
Iron overload can be a very serious problem. Not to scare you, but it can even lead to death. It certainly is not caused by just inflammation. If that was true, all the people with autoimmune diseases who inflammation would also have iron overload, and unless they have hemochromotosis or some other blood disorder, they don't. I have an autoimmune disease. I have inflammation. I don't have iron overload. I found this list of symptoms for you on irondisorders dot org. Do any of these symptoms sound familiar?
Symptoms of Too Much Iron
chronic fatigue
joint pain
abdominal pain
diabetes mellitus
irregular heart beat (arrhythmia)
congestive heart failure
(early death by heart attack)
skin color changes (bronze, ashen-gray green)
women: period is irregular or stops
apathy: loss of interest in sex
osteoporosis
osteoarthritis
hair loss
enlarged liver or spleen
impotence
infertility
hypogonadism
hypothyroidism
depression
mood swings
adrenal function problems
early onset neurodegenerative disease
elevated blood sugar
elevated liver enzymes
elevated iron (serum iron, serum ferritin)
ill be having my tests on the first week of february. ill definitely check my ferritin and cbc again and if its still high. ill. go get checked by a haematologist. thanks for the help.
do u have iron problems?
Good that you're on top of that. The rest of your iron panel will also tell more of the story. Ferritin is a protein that stores iron in your body, or iron storage. The other parts are IBC/iron binding capacity unsaturated, TIBC/total iron binding capacity, iron percentage saturation or transferrin, and serum iron.
No, not really. I'm on the other end of the spectrum. My ferritin was getting too low because I wasn't supplementing any and I apparently wasn't getting enough from my diet either. I was not anemic, or iron deficient, but it was getting down there too low. I've been supplementing iron now for 7 weeks and I feel much better!
25mcg is a tiny tiny dose
The standard starter dose is 50mcgs, increasing in 25mcg steps until TSH is around one and FT4 towards top of range and FT3 at least half way in range
Bloods should be retested 6-8 weeks after each dose increase
All thyroid tests should be done as early as possible in morning and fasting and don't take Levo in the 24 hours prior to test, delay and take straight after. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results
What are your thyroid results before starting that prompted GP to start you on Levothyroxine
Do you know if you have high thyroid antibodies? This is Hashimoto's also called autoimmune thyroid disease
Be good idea to get vitamin D, folate, B12 and ferritin tested
I didn't notice right away. It wasn't until I began to gain weight. My hair was long and there were no mirrors in the house that showed below the shoulders on me. I am short in stature. I attended my son's wedding in South Florida. In the wedding pictures, I could see so clearly that I had nothing but shaggy hair strands in the back. My nape hair wasn't growing, at all. I was so embarrassed. I had noticed a while before this that I had no outer eyebrows. I penciled them in with an Eyebrow Pencil. A few years later, I saw a physician and he said that I had low Thyroid. He prescribed 20 of Levothyroxine. It didn't help. I spoke with one of my cousins who also had thyroid issues. She was diagnosed with Hashimotos Auto Immune Disease. I told my doctor that it ran in my family. He ran the test and it came back positive for Hashimoto's and at least one other auto immune disease. Later, I found out that I had even more auto immune diseases. I was and still am horrified. I no longer care about the Alopecia. I am struggling to get by, day by day, with demyelinating neuropathy, carpal tunnel in both wrists, Alzheimer's Disease with dementia. I am tired all of the time. I have severe arthritis. It is the Alzheimer's that is going to take my life. I have Demenita and it is getting worse. Read up on your disease state.
satindoll77054 You are very possibly still under medicated. It seems that in USA and UK doctors do not like prescribing the adequate dose of thyroid meds. Also your body is maybe not converting the T4 medication into the usable thyroid hormone T3. If you still have hair loss, I would say you are under medicated. Have you checked levels of vitamins B12 and D3, also folate, ferritin? All are absolutely vital to check if diagnosed Hashimoto's. Also you could supplement with zinc, magnesium, selenium, multi B vitamins, high dose vitamin C (at least 1,000mg a day). Eat cholestrol for brain function.
You could write a Post on here for more info. Good luck
pauloingaran So sorry your post was hijacked by other subjects. I have returned to you to tell you what SlowDragon has said; ie that 25mcg of T4/levothyroxine is too low a dose as a starter dose. You should be started off on 50mcg.
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